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Hunters get added season for snow geese

Snow geese stop their migration flight from the Antarctic to several Arctic islands west of Greenland in March 2013, stopping at a field next to Newton Medical Center at Lentini Farms on the Newton-Fredon border on Route 94.Photo by Tracy Klimek/New Jersey Herald

A map shows the migration of the snow geese population each year.
Map courtesy of Canadian Wildlife Service

They flock to the fields by the hundreds and often thousands, a picturesque sight of bright white (and noisy) geese, flying in for an afternoon of feeding.

Then, there is also the dark side to snow geese, which, by the hundreds of thousands, "are proverbially eating themselves out of house and home" in their native breeding grounds, according to a state wildlife biologist.

For past decade, New Jersey has set a special conservation order to have a late winter, early spring hunting season for snow geese with almost no restrictions.

The problem is not really in New Jersey, but centered on several Arctic islands, west of Greenland, where the birds gather in spring to build their nests, lay their eggs and, with so many of them, generally make a mess of the landscape to where other birds that use the same islands as their own breeding grounds have no place to settle and raise their own chicks.

The birds are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, said Ted Nichols, a wildlife biologist with the Division of Fish and Wildlife.

While there are special hunting seasons for geese, including the all-white snow geese, there aren't enough birds killed during the season to control their population.

And, he noted, there aren't enough biologists and technicians to go into the Arctic each spring for population control.

"It's much easier to have hunters do it," he said.

Officially, the conservation order is obtained by the state through the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and runs from today through April 7.

Other than the proper license and bird stamps, a hunter needs only to obtain a $2 special permit.

During the conservation season, the normal hunting rules are relaxed.

Hunters can use electronic calls, have up to seven rounds in their shotgun, with no daily bag nor possession limit.

Daily hunting hours are from a half-hour before sunrise to a half-hour after sunset.

The reason for the electronic calls, said Nichols, is that with big amplifiers, and just a handful of decoys, hunters can make it sound like hundreds of geese are gathered.

"They are a very social species," he said.

The only restrictions are that nothing of the goose can be commercially sold; no meat, no feathers.

That is a holdover from the days before the treaty when goose and duck hunting was a commercial operation.

Many species were hunted to near extinction.

The treaty is between Great Britain, acting on behalf of Canada, and the U.S.

Nichols spoke by cell phone from near the Cape May lighthouse where he was participating in the study of brant, another type of migratory waterfowl.

The greater snow goose winters along the Atlantic seaboard from New Jersey south to the Carolinas. As spring nears, the geese begin their flight north.

In mid-April, most have made it to the St. Lawrence River area and by May are picking nest sites on a group of low-lying islands to the west of Greenland.

Each spring, Canadian biologists fly over those islands taking estimates of the breeding population.

Nichols said the breeding population began rebounding under the treaty, doubling about every seven to eight years.

By the 1980s, the population was estimated to be a million or more.

And that's when the problems began as the geese overate the grasses and sedges which make up the only vegetation on those islands.

The conservation orders have been successful, bringing the population down to where it's now estimated to be about 700,000 geese.

The ideal population would be between 500,000 and 750,000, Nichols said, and the goal is to have enough of the species hunted to keep it in that range.

The snow geese feeding habits also cause some problems with farmers in the U.S. who have fall-planted crops, such as winter wheat, which begins growing while the geese are still here.

"The ground freezes and thaws and creates a top layer of soft soils," he explained. "With that soft soil, even if the goose were trying to nip off a bit, it could rip out the plant by the roots."

He said the New Jersey special season averages about 8,000 birds harvested and 700-800 people participating.

The documents needed are a legible photocopy of 2018 Firearm or All-Around Sportsman license which clearly shows the licensee's Conservation ID Number (CID#) and date of birth; a check or money order for $2 payable to the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife; self-addressed, $0.50 stamped envelope; and a daytime telephone number.

Permits are not available at license agents.

Bruce A. Scruton can also be contacted on Twitter: @brucescrutonNJH or by phone: 973-383-1224